freewheelin-on-line take ten
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Freewheelin’ 208 December 2002
The backdrop to the last cover of Freewheelin for 2002 is taken from one of the last paintings by the American Abstract Expressionist painter Barnett Newman (1905- 1970). The painting is entitled ‘BE I (Second version)’ and was painted by Newman in the last year of his life. It is also the last painting in the Barnett Newman exhibitions that were held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art between March and July 2002 and the Tate Modern, London between September 2002 and January 2003.
Newman’s paintings have a distinctive style – they are usually vast expanses of colour that have a vertical line or ‘zip’ that split the compositions into sections. Those ‘zips’ could represent all manner of images, from a light giving source to the separation of man from God to the division of race to the break down of a relationship or of a mind. As the following extract from the introduction to the Tate Modern collection suggests however, it is impossible to properly represent the emotion of these paintings by reproduction: ‘Newman’s paintings are impossible to grasp from reproductions. They require us to stand before them, close enough to experience all their nuances of colour and structure’.
Newman himself often compared the ‘visual experience of the painting’ to an ‘encounter . . .with a person, a living being’.
We encounter three persons who are standing in front of ‘BE I(Second Version)’. The first is Bob Dylan, actually only the left side of Bob Dylan, separated as he is by Newman’s zip from the other side of his Gemini twin. The other two people are from the Monty Python team, one of whom appears to be pointing straight at you but actually the way he his holding his forefinger and thumb together may mean that he has just stood in front of a Barnett Newman painting and has measured the width of a ‘zip’!
2 Freewheelin-on-line take ten (freewheelin’ 208)
Page
4 Magnetic Movements Video by Chris Cooper
6 20 Pounds of Headlines by Mark Carter The Continuing Chronicle of Bob Dylan in the Press.
8 The Two Riders Approaching by Two Riders
12 Ignore This Instruction by Jim Gillan
15 Yet Another Top Ten by Chris Cooper
18 Return Of The Native by Chris Hockenhull
21 Worthless Foam From The Mouth by Mark Carter
24 2002 Top Ten by Paula Radice
27 Hipsters Flipsters & Finger Poppin Daddies by C P Lee
33 Ten For 2002 by Richard Lewis
35 More Bob Dylan Top Ten Pillbox Hats by Neil Watson
39 Like Judas Kissing Flowers by Robert Forryan
42 The Missionary Times by J R Stokes
47 The Sad Dylan Fans by Mark Carter
All of the quotations from copyrighted works in this publication are strictly for the purpose of legitimate review and criticism only. With regard to photographs, every effort has been made to identify the owner. If you are able to enlighten us please do so, and you will be credited the following issue. 3
Distance Audio Steadiness Heads Focus Image 1 1/2 screen 1 Not in pic 80% No pic ! L=left 2 3/4 screen 2 In pic 25 % 70% Out of focus C= Center 3 Full length 3 in pic 50 % 60% Mostly blurred R=Right 4 Knees 4 In pic 75 % 50% Bit Blurry 1-9 10% angle 5 Thighs 5 In pic 100% 40% Goes in and out B=balcony 6 Waist 6 In pic moves 30% Soft Focus S=Stalls 7 Mid Chest 7 steady hand 20% Mostly In Focus PRO=TV 8 Head/Shoulders 8 monopod steady 10% Near Perfect D = Dark 9 Head 9 perfect Never Perfect
Another quiet month folks. Hopefully this drought will be changing soon now that Dylan is once again on the road in Australia. Not much new this month otherwise. Actually the only truly new item of course is the new video for the single “Cross The Green Mountain” currently available as a DVD if you buy the Soundtrack album. You will find amore detailed mention of this elsewhere in this issue. I would grab it while you can. But fear not, looking through the dusty files and boxes I have located a few items that seem to have slipped past the net on the first occasion. Here they are.
D7 A8 S7 H7 F7 I BL5 20-06-98 ARENA NEWCASTLE 79.00 Gotta Serve Somebody /If Not For You/ Cold Irons Bound/ Simple Twist Of Fate / Silvio / To Ramona /Masters Of War /Love Minus Zero/No Limit /Tangled Up In Blue /Forever Young /A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall /Highway 61 Revisited /ove Sick /Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35 A superb gig, a shame the video is not a little steadier, if it was I would say this was pretty essential, But as it is..
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D5 A8 S9 H8 F 8 I BC3 02-04-95 ASTON VILLA, BIRMINGHAM 101:00 Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood) /Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues/All Along The Watchtower/ What Good Am I ? /Tombstone Blues/ Tears Of Rage /Mr. Tambourine Man/ Desolation Row /To Ramona /Highway 61 Revisited /Jokerman/ Lenny Bruce ///Like A Rolling Stone /It Ain't Me, Babe Yet another good film from this show. This captures the entire show and is very very steady. It is not as sharp as some and arguably the sound is a little more boomy here but this is still a very nice film and one to look out for. Why has it taken so long to get here you ask? (OK I ask) Well. I really have no idea at all.
D6 A8 S7 H8 F 7 I BR5 11-12-95 BEACON THEATRE, NEW YORK CITY 84:00 Drifter's Escape / Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power) /All Along The Watchtower /Tears Of Rage / Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) /Silvio /Mr. Tambourine Man /Masters Of War / Mama, You Been On My Mind /Dark Eyes /Jokerman /Highway 61 Revisited ///Alabama Getaway /Girl Of The North Country /Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35 This is a much nicer find than may at first be obvious. Sure it could be a bit sharper and a bit closer but the view is generally clear and it captures “Dark Eyes” so well. It still seem inappropriate to me to see Patti Smith so feminine attired. She is really affectionate to Bob to on this, getting very close at times and kissing him at the end. Can’t say it is essential stuff but is certainly good to see. Till Next Time
Chris Cooper
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Here we are in December and I’m finally listing some of the February 2002 concert reviews. Firstly though, there’s a handful of Love and Theft reviews to put to bed. Imagine – by the time you read this the album will be almost eighteen years old. Firstly, Paul Williams turned his attention to it for the Spring 2002 issue of Crawdaddy! in a lengthy and nicely written essay; “…It’s such a listenable record. The sound, the melodies, the feel, the connectedness of it all….I like the way it all hangs together and becomes a single experience, single narrative in some mysterious and pleasing way that’s not easily pointed to or articulated.” Grayson Currin, on Technician Online, gave a very personal view and review in the wake of September 11th. Not a unique concept – I’ve read dozens of ‘em – but this is a bit special; “…it is the most profound and arguably the best album of 2001. It is a reinvention of Bob Dylan, and it is an epic enter of optimism for a world beset by needless suffering. Love and Theft will forever remain an album that helped me cope with the ugly magnitude of a truly tragic day.” Grant Moon of the UK’s Classic Rock magazine awarded it five stars; “As he remembers what got him into all this music lark in the first place, his sheer love of song has rarely been so infectious.” Two Norwegian reviews also praised it to the skies and beyond. Dagbladet’s Øyvind Rønning gave it six out of six and Aftenposten’s Knut Utler was impressed that it reminded him of Tom Waits and Leon Redbone. Onto the February reviews now, beginning with the Orlando Sentinel’s Jim Abbott trekking along to a sparsely populated TD Waterhouse Centre gig. He enjoyed the Love and Theft material but felt that some of the older material “exposed his deteriorating vocal range”. Still, as the review concludes, “Dylan’s ability to evolve and his songwriting transcend such nitpicking. And when he closed with Blowin’ In The Wind, it’s questions seemed more relevant than ever.” The Miami Herald’s Evelyn McDonnell was not so impressed with Dylan’s performance at Sunrise’s National Car Rental Center, calling the show “often lackluster”, Dylan’s voice as “hoarse, with limited range” and the half empty arena as proof that Dylan may be getting “exactly the disinterest he says he wants.” For all that, she did enjoy Searching For A Soldier’s Grave and John Brown, concluding that “the evening was not without it’s subtle commentary”. At the same venue, the Sun-Sentinel’s Jennifer Peltz enjoyed the “two-plus hours of some of the most electrifying music of his career” and reckoned that the show proved that Dylan “isn’t ready to be consigned to legend yet.” Gina Vivinetto of the St. Petersburg Times similarly enjoyed the Ice Palace show, calling Dylan “a wonder” and exalting in the fact that “we were several thousand strong in that arena, but it felt like we were in his living room, even if he didn’t talk to us at all.” Which isn’t to say, of course, that Dylan would talk to you even if you were in his living room. Also at the show, again writing for the St. Petersburg Times, was Jan Glidewell who is, I would guess, about the same age 6 as Bob. He did not enjoy himself at all, especially because he found it difficult to recognise any of the songs, but mostly, I suspect, because he is feeling his age and Dylan isn’t; “…What I saw and heard was a once-revered artist working hard at caricaturing himself but not, as most caricaturists do, enjoying the humour of the process …If you saw me at the concert and are about to run to e- mail me that I was seen on my feet at the end applauding, you would be right. It was because I was hoping he would cut the crap and sing something the old way for an old man.” Writing for Jacksonville.com, Nick Marino couldn’t have enjoyed the Coliseum show more; “…It’s hard to say when he peaked as a performer, but here’s a scary thought: maybe, with a world-class band and an ever-growing repertoire of sterling material, Bob Dylan’s live show is as good right now as it’s ever been.” Back at the Ice Palace, the Tampa Tribune’s Curtiss Ross enjoyed the set list and the band – particularly Sexton and Campbell – and “at the center of it all was Dylan, dwarfed by his 10- gallon hat, stylish in his black tailored Western suit, working his right knee like vintage Elvis and confounding his audience with his spontaneous song choices and irreverent reworkings of older material.” Prentiss Findlay turned in a positive review of the North Charleston Coliseum show for Charleston.net, finding it a far better performance than Dylan’s last visit in 1995; “at that show, he was stone-faced and never moved. This time, he glided about the stage and broke into a dance a time or two.” The unfortunately surnamed Ed Bumgardner also had a great time at the Joel Coliseum gig; “…There was much to appreciate for those who understand why Dylan is one of the great singers of the modern age. His ability to punctuate a syllable and bring new meaning to a phrase, his acute sense of rhythmic daring and nuance of phrase has never been more pronounced or more confident.” Finally for this month, Sonia Murray of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution went along to the Philips Arena and enjoyed “an unforgettable evening of blues, rockabilly, country and folk that at times made the arena feel far more intimate than a 19,000-seater should.” Briefly onto other press happenings during January. In the UK, The Times’, Barbara Ellen reviewed the new Tom Cruise movie Vanilla Sky (written by Cameron Crowe) and tried to spot some of the reputed 468 pop culture references hidden within. Of those she did find, a pastiche of the Freewheelin’ album cover was one of the easiest – and there’s even a photo from the scene in the movie to prove it. Meanwhile, Andrea Ashworth of The Longridge News was interviewing Northern folk/country duo Anne Topping and Dave Gardner. Gardner recalls the time he toured with Kris Kristofferson and met Dylan; “I said to him, after we had had a few beers, All Along The Watchtower – what’s that all about? He said; “I wrote that during a thunder and lightning storm at Woodstock during 1969 (sic) – but anyway, I think Jimi (Hendrix) did it better than I did”.” The Toronto Star’s John Goddard reckoned that the first historic plaque in Toronto commemorating a rock ‘n’ roll moment will be installed in the former Friar’s Tavern on Yonge Street. The building is now a Hard Rock Cafe (isn’t everything?) and the plaque will mark the site where Dylan first rehearsed The Hawks on September 16th 1965, prior to taking the world by storm and taking no prisoners. An earlier plaque was actually installed during November 2001 but the text contained several errors, as pointed out by numerous customers, who obviously should have been consulted before they wrote the damn thing in the first place. This time they will hopefully realise that there are, in fact, two L’s in Bob Dillon. Finally the March issue of the UK’s Uncut magazine reproduced a chunk of the 2001 Rome press conference. Rather naughtily, they credited it all to Dave Fanning and presented it as though it were an exclusive interview. Still, that’s showbiz, I guess.
THANKS TO: GRAHAM A, GRAHAM W, STUART T, KIM L, BRYAN G
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A Fistful of Tapes
Time is short, the windows are filled with frost and the water is coming through the ceiling so there is only time to report on a few shows this time even though there are numerous reports stacked up high.
Lake Tahoe 13th October early show
A generally OK show with a spot-on version of It’s Alright Ma as the standout cut. Lawyers, Guns and Money is OK but maybe a little too rocky. The piano on Watching The River Flow sounds out of synch.
Lake Tahoe 13th October late show
A better show than its earlier brother, even if the sound on this recording is a little dull. No real standouts, just good all round.
Los Angeles 15th October
Great sound on this one. And a very good show too. Seeing The Real You At Last storms along as does Tombstone Blues. In between these two is an excellent version of Tell Me That It Isn’t True. A real highspot is The End Of The Innocence, beautifully sung by Dylan and followed by a top-notch Things Have Changed. Plenty more goodies follow, the stand-put of which is Floater. But it’s all pretty good stuff.
Los Angeles 16th October
Next night, same place and an equally good show. Uniformly good sets with the exception of another too-raucous Lawyers, Guns and Money and an excellent 4th Street spoiled near the end by some random guitar plucking. Otherwise A-OK.
Los Angeles 17th October
Third and final night in old LA and it’s not quite up there with the best. However, we do get Bye and Bye for the first time but it is rather disappointing with its rough, uncertain vocal. Yet within two songs Dylan delivers an absolutely superb vocal on Accidentally Like A Martyr. There are also great versions of It’s Alright Ma, Old Man, High Water and Mutineer. The concert tends to fall away a bit after that with Floater doing just the opposite.
Restless Farewell for now.
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The Two Riders: Our Top Ten
As ever, there is no particular order to the items gathered below. A year of never-ending concerts, products and back pages. Curios, crackers and cringe-worthy confections – we had ‘em all. So here is our top ten for today, tomorrow it might be something different.
Soundboard Recordings
There has been a selection of soundboard CD-R’s this year and they have all been interesting in their own ways. Eugene, Oregon (14 June 1999) gave us a lively Dylan presenting a good mix of songs. Also we got Atlanta (9 February 2002), presenting six songs from "Love And Theft" as well as Things Have Changed thus highlighting some recent songs. However, the favourite is Sydney (24th February 1986). We had much of this show from broadcasts on Westwood One Radio Shows and the Hard To Handle video but to get the complete, unabridged show (apart from a fade in on Rock ‘n’ Roll Star) is excellent. It is easy to forget the interesting mix of songs and how chatty Dylan was.
The Bootleg Series Volume 5
Even though all of the tracks circulated previously this is excellent, notwithstanding a couple of minor gripes!! It would have been good to get Masterpiece and This Land for the sake of completeness! But being able to listen to some of the 1975 tour in excellent stereo is great. The 56- page booklet is a gem too with previously unpublished images by Ken Regan and a new essay by Larry 'Ratso' Sloman. The fact that there was only one track previously officially available is nothing short of amazing! This is It Ain't Me, Babe, recorded at Harvard Square Theatre, Cambridge, Ma; 20/11/75. It has been available in various ways from the Columbia promo 12-inch EP, 4 Songs From Renaldo & Clara, on the 1993 Japanese promo CD Mr. D’s Collection # 3, the European Dignity CD singles 1995, to the 2001 Japanese live compilation Bob Dylan Live 1961- 2000: Thirty Nine Years Of Great Concert Performances as well as the Renaldo & Clara film!
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On The Net
Once again the material made available on the Net has been very interesting even though the Dylan content this year has been limited to nine songs, all live from 2002! The recent highlights include: Something, New York City, 13/11/02, Yea! Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread, New York City, 11/11/02, The End of the Innocence, Los Angeles, California, 15/10/02 and Mutineer, Berkeley, California, 11/10/02
At Last the 1991 Shows!
We have a had a long time to wait for these tapes, in fact eleven years! Also no matter how incomplete the recording Wiggle Wiggle manages to feature! The most interesting song performed uniquely at Buenos Aires, 8 August, People Get Ready, is missing from these tapes, however. At the same time another tape from this show has been uncovered with the song included! We also get the premier of Ring Them Bells at Buenos Aires, 10 August. These shows include some interesting songs and therefore sneak into the Top Ten ahead of such gems as, the waltz time, Waiting For You!
Oh YES another Bob book!!!
It seems that every year we are overwhelmed with the new Dylan books for sale (but not always the ones we want, Lyrics and Chronicles ever delayed!!) and 2002 has been no different. We go from Desire, Lonesome Pilgrim, Do You Mr. Jones? to The Formative Dylan to mention but a few! Of these the latter is worth investigation, especially for those with an interest in Dylan's early days and roots. There are some very interesting and new facts included.
Bring Me My Supper for the Late Show
At last one of four soundboard recordings of these shows, played at this intimate venue, slipped the net during the year as and it’s a great-sounding aural memento. In a word the sound is superb, in your ears and how even if the actual show itself is patchy. There are some tasty inclusions (Jack- A-Roe, Ring Them Bells) balanced by a few wayward vocal efforts or dodgy Dylan guitar work. But you really can’t be without this one – roll on the other three. 10
Rundown Rehearsal Tapes 1978 Now this is what collecting is about. It’s an absolute treat. It features all of the previously circulating rehearsals from December 1977 and January 1978 now gathered together for the first time in largely excellent sound quality. But there’s more – in short an array of previously uncirculated material making this the most complete audio collection of this scrumptious practise for the world tour of 1978. Everything is given up: complete takes of songs which did or did not make the tour, examples of arrangements of songs being worked on, warm-ups, false starts and unreleased covers and originals. An absolutely essential addition to anyone’s collection.
The Rome Interview(s)
Dateline: 21 July 2001. Location: Rome, Italy. Event: A Bob Dylan interview where he actually reveals one or two things (eventually). Eleven journalists from all over Europe were invited for a comprehensive interview with Bob Dylan on his life and musical journey. Many periodicals carried full or abridged versions of the interview and now it is available on two CDs. It features Dylan personally revealing much of what you always wanted to know. The morning session offered reporters the opportunity of listening to the just completed "Love And Theft" CD. This was followed by an afternoon press conference. Broken into two sessions, Dylan was at his usual “I’d rather not be here” mode during the first session but after a break there was a distinct change of mood and a changed, more relaxed Dylan emerged answering frankly to a whole range of questions. Well worth searching out.
This could be the Last Waltz
At long last the complete unexpurgated Last Waltz show appeared on CD. Well at least the Dylan set is complete which is great news as it highlights Hazel, of course, which was not released originally. Now isn’t it amazing that the DVD which was also released still omits Hazel. Now where is the logic here?
The Piano Tour 2002
Well these shows from the Fall US tour just had to be included. Listening to these shows alongside the South American shows (se above) makes you realize how good they are (or how iffy the others were??). It seems like Dylan has become liberated and is trying new arrangements, debuting some of his own stuff and a lot of other peoples’ songs and generally making good music. What’s more, by moving to piano, he has liberated the band, and this is a good band, so that they can really put on a musical show. Hell, he even ditched Rainy Day Women! Now if he could only see the folly of Drifter’s Escape/Wicked Messenger in their heavy rock incarnations. Truly a wonderful tour – collect them all.
Riders of the Two Variety
11 IGNORE THIS INSTRUCTION by Jim Gillan
‘Many thanks for your contribution. There has been some confusion about the Top Ten issue. This will be the end of the year freewheelin i.e. december 2002 i.e. number 208 - to reach me by about 7th Jan. 2003. Hope thats OK. Keep up the words..’
The above is from a recent email that I received from He Who We Freely Wheel Around – aka The Wholly Spoke. But before attempting to address the monstrous task set by his hubness it seems particularly appropriate in this season of goodwill to acknowledge the work that John has put in to Freewheelin’. But how to do this? HA! Why not by observing a minute’s silence? OK, neither the printed page nor the Internet are vehicles that lend themselves to a respectful interlude, so can I suggest that instead we contemplate the following for the requisite sixty seconds?
Ignore this instruction.
Well, thanks for that. I’m sure John values our thoughts, however confused, as much as he does our (well, some of us) contributions. Whilst on the subject of the Spoke, it’s also appropriate to pay tribute to his fortitude, as well as to the tolerance he extends to us scribblers, who between us embrace everything from the serious to the surreal, with possibly the odd (especially so in my case) element of the cerebral flung in for good measure. Anyway, to business.
Reading that email with eyes that could be gates to the sole, but which eighteen pints of Old Horizontal have rendered utterly legless, I pondered. The shattered matter that on 31 January 1998 passed at approximately seventy feet per second through a space some five feet above the Otley Road, Leeds, stirred and restlessly swirled. Slowly, from out of the miasma an IDEA took shape. It was a parallelepiped. Which as any fule kno is a prism whose faces are all parallelograms. And, for those who care but don’t yet know, the volume of a three-dimensional parallelepiped is given by the scalar triple product. What the hell, it’s ALL beyond me.
LISTS! Where would we be without them? An essential in every social and professional context, they are something we so routinely use that often we don’t register their presence. But try getting through the day without them and see what happens! Chums, the brain can’t function without them. Amongst many other things, a list brings order to chaos, helps
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establish methodology and is a powerful aide memoire. They are so commonplace that most times we take them for granted and, in doing so, too often reduce them to the absurd.
Today’s (29 December) Observer newspaper is jam-packed with lists. All of ‘em splendidly absurd, though some, notably those dealing with international affairs, are perhaps intended to be VERY SERIOUS INDEED. And IMPORTANT. Well, for sure, when the subject matter is the possibility of an attack on Iraq, or GW’s musings on matters military, then the topic is indeed massively significant. Why, this time next year we may be either dead or listening very carefully to ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall’. But human nature being what it is, I suspect that most folk are more worried about what to wear to the New Year party, and/or about January’s credit card bill.
Quite why even the terminally vacant (that reminds me, seasons greetings to Michael Gray) might be interested in someone else’s opinion of what constitutes best film/book/CD/holiday destination/fashion accessory/blah/blah of 2002 escapes me. OK, I’ll come clean. The idea of reading any ‘top ten’ of the year/decade/millennium fills me with horror. But exceeding even that is the grotesque notion of contributing to one. It’s all too much. I’m off for a shudder. Well, what an amazing experience! No, not the shudder, fun tho’ it is when it results in hair unkempt. I mean instead the following, which I overheard when a crack opened in my personal space-time continuum. This resulted from dropping the glass containing the 19th pint of Old Horizontal. It’s not just the Stones who had a nervous breakdown. I won’t try to write down all that I heard, as I may need material for a future opus gropus - opus (Lat) : any artistic work; gropus (Lat) : to search uncertainly (for inspiration).
Mr. Dylan, would you mind telling our readers what your favorite five books of the Old Testament are…
I’ll spare you Bob’s exact response, but I suspect that you can guess. Now, at this point I need to make it clear that I do not expect others to share my views on ‘top thingy’ lists. In truth I prefer them not to. But not because I’m inherently anti-social, or have any notion that being out of the main stream is the better place. Nor do I think that ‘different’ is ‘better’, especially as one of the many follies of the human condition is to view ‘difference’ as a negative. All the entirely undesirable -isms can be traced to that, as can oppression, exploitation and conflict.
Well, perhaps it’s all too serious, so as it’s the Spoke who spake, I’ll give it a go. However I can’t be doing with a time frame of just one year, as that’s an arbitrary step too far. So then, in no particular order, here we go with my TOP TIN OF THEN ‘TIL NOW...
Ballad of a Tin Man No Tin Was Delivered Tins Have Changed Tinny Montgomery Buckets of Rain
H’mmm. As puns go it’s fairly excruciating of course, though I’m quite pleased with myself for working ‘Buckets’ in to it. And yes, there are only five, but if you are so minded, they might all want thinking twice about. Actually they don’t of course need any thought, since the opportunity cost of spending time on this nonsense is time lost to something more useful,
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or fulfilling, or simply entertaining. This list (and, I contend, all ‘best of’ lists) manifestly fails all three tests.
As I write, I’m listening to Johnny and Jack singing This World Can’t Stand Long. Good song, nicely interpreted by Bob. And, in it’s own way a useful reminder that for all the frivolity, froth and festivity, not to mention the concerts, CD’s and commentary, that it all takes place on a planet that is, sadly as ever, on the brink of Something Very Nasty Indeed.
Maybe it won’t make an iota of difference to audiences at any future shows if Baghdad burns whilst Bob sings. Or to know that whilst some scream with pleasure, elsewhere others scream in pain. Things can be different, though it’s hard to see how real change can take place given the backdrop of vested interests, prejudices and egos that afflict so many, most particularly those who believe they have a destiny to fulfil. But it can be done.
It’s not enough to live in hope. Others can’t do it for you and nor should they. We may not all be part of the problem, but we must all be part of the solution. Because we are all affected. And every gesture, however small, really does matter. There is an anti-war rally in London on 15th February. Amnesty and others could use more support. There are Ministers, MP’s and local Councillors to lobby. Letters to write. Attitudes and mindsets to change – so much to do that you may need to make a list…What was it you wanted?
14 Chris Cooper
YET ANOTHER TOP TEN
I have to say that I am sometimes at a loss to know what to put here. I can rattle on forever about non Dylan things and some of you even seem to like that but really it isn’t entirely cricket is it? Then I often think that matters that have some importance to me in the year, things that maybe will affect me for the foreseeable future are not necessarily my “Top Ten” material. For example I am currently holding a very expensive battle with DVD burners that I see to finally be winning but whilst that has been a serious issue to me there have been many times I was ready to toss it out the window . Hardly rates as Top Ten does it?
I know, lets begin by looking at what I considered my Top Ten last year.
LOVE AND THEFT Was first last year, an album of maturity and humour that I find , amazingly for me that I am still playing today . So it was a good choice last year. I think its fair to say that new Dylan official material usually makes my top ten so I guess that predictable. On that level but in no order I would say that
LIVE 1975 Would be one of this year top ten. I was fully expecting this to be a dead loss but it’s far from it. The intimacy of the shows has been brilliantly preserved , oh sure I can think of some criticism’s but they are minor gripes on a major album. I play this in the car quite a lot (always a good sign with me) but it does change places with Love And Theft a lot so I would say that these two constitute the first two items. Now there is that a first for me? Same thing two years running Well then the next thing holds true too
THE FIRST JOHN GREEN DAY Was in there last year so I can say that No 2 was even better in some ways. Bettre because we had more of an idea what we were going to do this time. I certainly enjoyed it more. We had a new band in Cold Overture who took the place by storm. I really enjoyed Julie Felix also. She had a warm friendly approach and I think she really enjoyed the day also. We had more people we had more fun , it was good. I can imagine some of the group read this and wonder why I get so tetchy then say it was good. It’s the old problem,
15 not enough hours and too much to do. That feeling that your life is starting to revolve around this obsession and welcoming the involvement whilst hating the responsibility that it brings. I have not found the answer yet, but hell at least I am still motivated to look. But lets keep this on an up, ok?
STEVE GIBBONS SET was in there last year but I don’t think I would place Julie Felix in its place this year, she was good but Gibbons was better. Curiously I don’t think a lot of people will agree with me on that. Well I am usually contrary you know. However for my fourth choice I would pic a small gig we (Dizzy and I) went to in October (no not those) It was the Stan Tracey Quartet doing “Under Milk Wood” in Milton Keynes. Full of life and vitality it was marvelous to hear the skill of the old quartet again. You know, there really is no substitute for hearing and seeing music live, and when you get to it, no music has more life in it than jazz. (Pause for complaints) Sorry, I just think that’s how it is. But of course that brings me too.
BOB’S UK VISIT Now this got in in 2001 on the strength of Liverpool and Stirling. Both great shows in their own way. This year was an odd one. Bob in kianky mood and so-so voice at times. But you always enjoy him don’t you. Won’t say these were the best shows, but I’l;l go see him as long as he can make a noise and I can drag myself to the gig. Oh yeah, I did ‘em all again of course!
OUR MATES So we continue with last years repeated because this was in for sure. As time goes by , and after losing a few mates I find I appreciate the others more than ever. IF I had to chose the most amusing part of the tour it would be spending some bizarre conversations with the Crystal Cat and sharing some drinks earlier than expected with Dave H in Brighton. The day we cannot have a laugh at ourselves is the day we stop. Well I will anyway.”This stuff don’t make sense to me no more” That used to feel like me, but the truth is it’s the fact that it all doesn’t make sense that keeps me going!!!
FREEWHEELIN’ Always true for me I guess, good to see so many new people in after a pretty bad previous time. Freewheelin-on-line a reality now and blossoming all the time. My most earnest wish is that we could get you all involved much more than you are. Maybe someday. (I just wish that one day I can look round and not see JRS standing there saying “now we got this to do” Next time the next thing was
VIDEO DEVELOPMENTS I made that statement about VCD’s taking over in this area. Twelve months later I have already abandoned them and moved into DVD’s ! One area that has proven correct is that the general quality of circulating videos is now starting to improve again. But no, this is not included as a top ten this year.
THE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2001 CONCERTS was there last year. Now that’s really spooky as again in 2002 we saw an upliftfor these shows as Bob returned to the keyboard and has produced I would suggest the best tour this century. He sounds and looks so animated. Co-incidentally the first video footage from this year is featured in Magnetic Movements this month so check it out there. 16
THE OSCARS Well we cannot repeat that one this year, though it’s still fun to watch isn’t it. Now last year we ended with :
BOB ON THE NET “This has to be the big new thing. So much information out there now just waiting for us. News gets around so fast. Then there’s our own rapidly developing website. I can see the world as a much smaller place since the net. I cannot begin to imagine how much it has changed my collecting habits. Certainly this is the communication medium now. “ And then we had FW-On-Line. I obviously thought it was the way forward then and even more so now.
SO: 1. Love And Theft 2. Live 1975 3. John Green Day 2 4. Stan Tracey Quartet and live jazz 5. The 2002 UK Tour 6. Our Mates 7. FW 8. FW-0n-line 9. Winter 2002 Shows
Leaves me with one last choice. I could probably think of something more dynamic if I tried but I wthink I would just plump for family life here. I had a bad year in 2001, it would have been disasterous if my family had not rallied round me. But they did and I am still here because of that. So thanks to them all, especially my Dizzy who remains my best friend an inspiration now and after more than 30 years that’s a record even Bob can’t beat
Have a happy new year
Till Next Time.
17 Return of the native By Chris Hockenhull
I could have sat for hours and attempted to write something witty with song references in the title etc but I’ve always thought that a bit naff so I’ll just say how nice, and somewhat unexpected it is to be back.
An awful lot has happened over the years since I last wrote here and I believe at the Freewheelin’ end things too have changed dramatically. No doubt in the fullness of time I’ll find out about them and vise versa but whilst circumstances meant that I had to put things Bob very much to one side, I didn’t quite leave the scene totally and have a few dispatches from the front to tell you about in future months.
But it’s nice to know that some things haven’t totally changed and that John still sits in his shed collating all things Freewheelin’ and keeps the ship on a steadyish course, that what comes out one month is still dated the last’s and that the old “Top 10 / Review of the year” is still requested as Christmas approaches.
This puts me in somewhat of a dilemma in that there have been very few Dylan highlights for me personally this last year. So I’ve cheated a bit and gone for some half and half and nominated five of my memories of my involvement in Freewheelin’ 1986 – 1999. So in no particular order:
The past…..
1: The Lincoln Events These jolly japes occurred there whilst I was the farthest traveller to the place, which was originally organised there, as it was the most conveniently located place for all who were on board at the time! (maybe they were trying to tell me something). Many pleasant memories of that hard slog up the hill to town and the wonderful bookshops littered about that part of town. With good food and banter I have some pleasant memories of the annual get-togethers there. Do you still do anything like this or is the Isle of Bute the most centrally located place for those on board these days?
2: Friendships Without naming names, there were some people during my days in Freewheelin’ that knowing meant there was a lot more to it all than things Dylan…which is exactly the way it should be.
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3: Giving Freewheelin’ a plug on Radio 2 In 1997 whilst Bob was ill and the mystery deepened, I ended up on Folk On 2 doing an interview and without prompting him, Ralph McTell gave the merry ship Freewheelin’ a mention. It was only some while later that I remembered that he’s read some copies of it at my house about two years before. How on earth he’d remembered it I don’t know but I was proud to hear the good name over the airwaves.
4: Cambridge 1994 It was a good time for me to get away from here and I got a little role to play hanging around at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Whilst in the area I was able to attend a Friday evening meeting, made to sing “One Too Many Mornings”, had lots to drink, met new people and made my first and only visit to the area. Despite two of the worst ever journeys (there and back) that I’ve ever experienced in my life, the pleasant memories have remained.
5: Liverpool 26/27 June 1996 After trekking all over the place for things Bob and Freewheelin’ it was nice when the whole mountain did come to Mohammad over that two days. I remember a few F.W’s visiting my house and then there were the highs and lows of the Euro ’96 game, the performances, the after gig time at The Lion etc etc. Wonderful times. The second night – 27th was my 40th birthday and the whole event will live with me forever…all about people being nice (in the days when friendly and nice people really were part of Merseyside Dylan).
And what of more recent times ……….
1: Dylan still being around Without venturing into the actual quality of the product etc etc, the fact that he is still out there to continue to intrigue others and me is still great to have. Along with one other thing, he’s (sadly?) the most consistent thing in my life. Talking of which……
2: Everton Like the best things in life, it is healthy to fall in and out of love with them whilst commanding a consistent loyalty to it. This is no different and since the spring there has been signs of green shoots of recovery. It’s early days yet and I’ve seen this movie before, but……
19 3: The Life & Times Of Bob Dylan Since 1999 I have delivered six courses for Liverpool University on the above topic. Initially a 10 session / week course, due to student feedback it has been extended to 20 sessions and continues to flourish. The most rewarding aspect is the whole age range that attends and the depth of their interest in Dylan. It’s amazing that there are total lifelong followers out there who don’t chase the man all over the country when he performs, who don’t buy every book, who rely on just the official stuff to listen to but who have a wonderful grasp on the art and I gain an awful lot of pleasure working with these people. I’ll talk more about this at a later date.
4: At the shows Over the past three years there has been a notable increase in younger people at the shows. This could be looked on as whilst Dylan’s legendary status grows, young people are seeing him playing as an opportunity to catch the event before it’s too late (like saying The Beatles are long gone, The Stones play seldom so here’s a legend we better catch before it’s too late etc) but from the one’s I’ve spoken to they actually like what they are hearing/seeing and do return to see him instead of ticking his name off their “need to see list” which is vastly different and quite refreshing.
5: Freewheelin’ Still being around too. And that’s a healthy thing that I look forward to seeing and hearing from you all again!
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TIME IN A BOTTLE
It’s true – the older you get, the quicker these annual Top Tens seem to come around. Here we go, then …
1. Jamie. A traditional number 1 by now, but if this is to be an honest Top Ten of the year then there really is nothing else that has made me happier.
2. Live 1975. A criminally belated official release for Dylan’s finest tour from the finest chapter of his life that began somewhere in 1974 and ended – “Are You Ready?” excepted – at the end of 1980. However good the best bootlegs are, they’re not a patch on this. The booklet was the icing on the cake – a nice essay from Ratso himself and more previously unseen photos than even I could have hoped for. All that plus my favourite Ken Regan pic on the slipcase and a DVD for an extra quid. By the way, anyone wondering what happened to “This Land Is Your Land” and “Never Let Me Go” might care to notice that the only non-original included is the traditional “The Water Is Wide”. Guess who gets all the royalties?
3. Birmingham NEC. My only show of the year was back at my familiar stomping ground where I had previously witnessed wonderful Dylan shows in 1989 and 2000. Alas, this year couldn’t hold a candle to those shows, despite delivering a dream set list. He was tired and, rather than push it as he did in 1997, decided to lay back and coast for much of the show (and tour?). “The Wicked Messenger” will always define the show for me, just as “I And I” did back in 1993. I’m glad I went and I’ll go again
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4. next time but, sadly, during “Rainy Day Women” I was, for the first time ever, actually bored during a Bob Dylan concert.
5. The 2002 Autumn tour. What is it about the American Autumn tour that always brings out the best and most adventurous in Dylan? These were definitely the best of the year, possibly even eclipsing last year’s epic run. The keyboards have shaken up the sound, the cover versions have shaken up the set lists and Dylan sounds as near to great as he’s every going to get these days. If he should return to our shores next year, then a few shows of this calibre will do very nicely, thankyou. Not that I’m holding my breath.
6. Other music. With the pre-October shows being so unexciting, I’ve found plenty of time to check out all sorts of different music this year. A partial list of new CDs I have bought and particularly enjoyed this year would have to include “Love Junk Store” – The Alice Band “Beautysleep” – Tanya Donelly “The Last D.J.” – Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers “Ten Sorrowful Tales” – Monica Queen “Out of Season” – Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” – The Flaming Lips “The Burt Bacharach Collection” “The Rising” – Bruce Springsteen “The Musician” – Jennifer Terran “Vespertine” – Bjork
7. Freewheelin’. We have survived a few downs as well as enjoyed a few ups this year. Ignoring the public version in whatever incarnation for a moment, the private issue continues to be my favourite Bob Dylan read. If the only certainties in life are death and taxes, then perhaps we should add to that the brown A4 envelope that plops through our letterboxes every month without a hiccup. Thanks to you all for keeping me entertained throughout 2002 and thanks to JRS for holding it all together (and for quite literally putting it all together and posting it).
8. Movies. It’s been a pretty good year for movies. The first blockbusting instalment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy “The Fellowship Of The Ring” was everything it promised to be and more (though “The Two Towers” looks set to be even better) and the Cohen Brothers’ “From Hell” added a stylish slant to the Jack The Ripper legend and coaxed good performances out of Johnny Depp and the reliable Robbie Coltrane, even if their conclusion was hardly original or, it must be said, any more likely to be true than any of the other dozens of nominations over the past 114 years. But what I have probably enjoyed more than anything this year would have to be the computer-generated gems “Monsters Inc”, “Ice Age” and “Toy Story 2”. Sheer bliss and sheer genius.
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9. “On The Road With Bob Dylan”. A timely reprint for Larry Slomans’s masterpiece and one that meant I could finally throw away my tatty old photocopy of the original and read it all over again. Still easily the best book on Bob Dylan and likely to remain so. Within a few short pages Sloman had effortlessly transported me back to those halcyon Fall 1975 days. The days before Jesus, before Live Aid, before Knocked Out Loaded and Under The Red Sky, before 1991. And the last year – with the brief exception of Blackbushe in 1978 – that Dylan looked great in a hat.
Special mention for the Uncut issue that reproduced a few chunks of the book alongside a stunning collection of unseen photos. Rolling Thunder books, albums and magazines – as you can imagine, it’s been a pretty good three months in the Carter household.
10. CD-Rs. Collecting everything on disc nowadays gave me the impetus to totally blitz my overstocked tape cupboard, allowed me to stop buying “proper” bootlegs and made it easy to skip “Tangled Up in Blue”, “Mobile” and “Rainy Day Women” on the 2002 shows. For those reasons alone, they deserve to be in this list.
11. The return of old favourites. Recent second series of The Office and I’m Alan Partridge briefly made it essential to watch t.v. again and, in both cases, the second series was almost as good as the first. The characters of David Brent and Alan Partridge are truly and pathetically awful but the most frightening thing is that, somewhere out there, they exist for real.
DOWNERS OF THE YEAR
1. The pre-October shows. Let’s face it; with one or two exceptions, they simply weren’t all that good, were they?
2. The loss of public Freewheelin’ as a magazine. I thought it looked wonderful and was a credit to us all. I can’t help it – I still miss adding new editions to my shelf.
3. Sad Dylan Fans. They’re out there and it only takes a negative Michael Gray article in a national newspaper to bring ‘em out in a foam-mouthed horde. They are also presumably the same ones proclaiming Dylan’s 2002 shows to be the best he’s ever done. Be afraid, be very afraid.
And that’s it. A happy and peaceful New Year to you all. As JRS said last month; we are all artists and long may we continue to paint our collective Freewheelin’ masterpiece.
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Paula Radice
Well, I've got a new computer, but no graphics still, and my old address book can't be retrieved, apparently. Please let me have your email addresses again, as I'm feeling lost without them...
Here goes with my Dylan Top Ten for 2002. (I decided to make it just a Dylan one this time around, but a personal Top Ten for 2002 would include: achieving a Diploma in Performance Coaching in Education; getting Minstrel, the kitten who is now nearly fully- grown and chock-full of character; my parents' Ruby Wedding Anniversary in the Summer...and my new kitchen and bathroom, which caused months of havoc in the house but were finally worth all the disruption).
1. The 2002 British shows
I really enjoyed the two weekends of Dylan shows this May. Brighton is, of course, just up the road from Hastings, so that was an easy and enjoyable saunter, but the drives down to Bournemouth - via Fishbourne and Arundel, which I hadn't seen before - were also great, and Monica and I had booked into a very comfortable hotel right opposite the venue. One of my abiding memories will be of eating beans on toast, overlooking the swimming pool in the Centre. Oh, I really know how to live...And of course, the shows were great.
The following weekend in Docklands was, if anything, even better. Both shows were, I thought, very exciting (despite some very annoying drunks in the seats next to us on the first night, who kept hassling Julie Felix in the row in front of us, and generally talking through the songs, until I persuaded them their presence wasn't appreciated and they left. Or perhaps they just left because the booze had run out) but I also enjoyed seeing a part of London I didn't know at all. We took the Light Railway out to Greenwich Market on the Sunday, and wandered around the Cutty Sark and the coffee bars, and had an altogether excellent time. Docklands Arena is an amazing place - because I never thought I would come across a venue as bad as Wembley Arena, a truly staggering achievement - but it didn't spoil the experience.
2. The Second Annual John Green Day in Northampton
A super weekend, mostly due to the meeting up with old and new friends and the great atmosphere of the event. My bank manager's least favourite Dylan event of the year, thanks to the merchandise stalls.
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3. Starting writing for The Bridge and Isis fter years of not daring to put word processor to paper, Freewheelin' managed to boost my confidence to such an extent that I felt able to take up two very kind offers to write for other publications. Poor fools, they don't know what they've let themselves in for...
4. Live 1975
I know there are criticisms to be made of the song choices and the track ordering on Live 1975 (which Chris made most adroitly in the last Freewheelin'), but the music is, when all's said and done, absolutely superb, and it's great to have it in such good audio quality. The packaging deserves crediting as well - good photos and interesting text. I'm very glad to have it, and can't stop playing It Ain't Me Babe.
5. Waitin' for You
I've said enough about this elsewhere. I got quite a ridiculous amount of pleasure from this one little song. Time for a new album, Bob.
6. "Do You Mr Jones?" Bob Dylan with the Poets and Professors
Still haven't written the in-depth review of this for Freewheelin' that I kept promising, but have included it in the books I've reviewed for Isis, which will have to do now, I'm afraid. I do think it is a very important book, and will be cited as a landmark in years ahead. No longer will we have only Christopher Ricks to point to when asked who, in the academic/literary world, takes Dylan seriously enough to study him in depth. Not that Ricks wasn't good enough, of course, on his own; it's just that weight of numbers and prestige is always better than a lone voice. A very exciting and thought-provoking read.
7. Reading the script for Masked and Anonymous
Couldn't stop laughing as I read it. It's got Dylan all through it, like the lettering on a stick of rock. The film is either going to be very, very good, or absolutely appalling in ways that can only be imagined now. We can only wait and see.
8. Planning for Hibbing 2003
Monica and I have had a trip to Hibbing as a future project ever since we met, and it seems as if 2003 will be the year. Thinking about what we want to see and do around Minneapolis and Hibbing is beginning to get really exciting, and the time is drawing near to book the thing and make it a reality. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to plan an itinerary etc., please let me know. We shall be "doing" all the Dylan things, of course, but we don't want to miss out on the best of the rest as well.
25 9. The last Tarantula
I've just bought yet another edition of Tarantula: just a little scruffy paperback, but a significant event for me, as it was the last English-language edition I didn't have. I paid over the odds for it, of course, but that's what happens when you're a collector: things take on a significance beyond themselves (or indeed, beyond sanity, according to some people's definition). Now to concentrate on the foreign-language editions. I've got a fair few, but if anyone has a spare Japanese, or Croatian one, please let me know...
10. Bob Dylan Still Being Around
Should be item number one, of course, and we should never take it for granted. Thank you, God, for all the things that Bob's done this year that have brought us enjoyment and the pleasure of anticipation. We await the delights of Crossing Over the Green Mountain, Masked and Anonymous, Chronicles, Lyrics, Pressin' On, etc. etc.
Have a great Christmas and may the New Year bring you everything that will make you happy,
26 HIPSTERS, FLIPSTERS & FINGER POPPIN’ DADDIES! By
CP Lee
Painting by Tony Turner, Manchester, 2002
Top Ten For 2002
2002 was a strange year – It would have to be after the horror of the year before. However, no sooner had fire-fighters become ‘the new heroes’, and ‘real people’, the subject of ‘real news’, than what passes for the media on this planet regurgitated their obsession with celebrity and artifice. While a child dies every twenty seconds from starvation and Al Quaida recruit fresh martyrs from the backstreets of Karachi and Hounslow, our papers and TV led us into the struggle for the survival of our civilisation with fresh revelations about the break up of Justin and Britney, the antics of a coke sniffing, whoring news quiz host and taxed our intellects with the burning question – who’ll win Big Brother in 2002? That’s why I’ve found it a tad difficult to pluck ten wonderful things from the cornucopia of delights that have showered down on us over the last twelve months. Difficult, but not impossible. Here they are, in reverse order as usual -
Number Ten – Case Logic folders Pam and I were in America at Easter. We started off in Philadelphia and spent a few happy days exploring the city looking for examples of her great-grandfather’s plumbing in various city buildings (the basement toilet, sorry, rest room, in the Bourse being the best one by far). Then we spent a few days in New York where I’d been invited to play on the bill with singer/songwriter Pete Stone Brown. The day after the gig we went to visit a new friend, Hodah. It was in his apartment that we shared an exhilarating epiphany – Case Logic. Housing in Manhattan being at a premium, Hodah had to make the most of the limited space in his apartment. One of the first things I do when I visit anybody is look at their bookshelves and CD racks. There were his books and other ephemera, he works in the movie industry so there was a lot of that, but try as hard as I could, I couldn’t see any CDs. There was music playing on the hi-fi, but none of the usual piles of discs that I associate with the home of a Dylan collector. When he was putting the next selection of music on I was intrigued to watch him go to a book case and take down a large, black folder, unzip it, open it up and take out a CD. It was one of many that stood in 27 a row on the shelf. I’d originally thought they were photo-albums or such like. Hodah carefully explained to me what they were. This was the first time I’d ever seen a Case Logic binder.
We got quite excited by the possibilities. I don’t know how you store your music, but back home in Manchester, things had got out of control, mounds of discs, some in jewel cases, more and more just in plain slips and plastic envelopes, were in danger of overwhelming the living room. And that’s not counting the ones that were on the purpose built shelf and in CD towers. Quite bluntly – we were in danger of drowning in music. Case Logic offered a chance to get it all under control.
Now, I’m proud to say, that over our original shelf is another shelf on which reside the cases, each one holding 80 CDs with covers contained opposite, or 160 without. Unfortunately there are still a heap of CDs in shoe-boxes, little wallets and a pile residing in slip cases by the sound system that grows taller day by day because of my top ten choice number three, which will be revealed shortly.
Number Nine – The Second John Green Day Once again, the perfect opportunity to meet and greet friends old and new. The amount of organisation that goes into the JG Day always amazes me and a heartfelt thanks and congratulations to my fellow Freewheelers who actually do all the work. The assorted guests on the bill this year were interesting, informative and entertaining, the traders’ hall of delights was a veritable bazaar of the bizarre, and the bar awash with bonhomie and ideas that definitely reached the parts that other bars can’t reach. In particular, I’d like to thank Bob Dylan for the sartorial inspiration that I feel made my contribution in 2002, just that little bit different. Next year, Keith Agar should be given some kind of award for his sterling efforts on behalf of the Side-Splitting Society, and finally, next time, put the speakers on in the afternoon and the music on in the evening because it’s a long day and inebriants take the ir toll on even the stoutest of hearts.
Number Eight – Bob Dylan live at the Manchester Arena Unlike a great many of his followers, here and abroad, I don’t see a Dylan tour as an excuse to flash the plastic and re-mortgage the house in order to go to every gig. I like to keep things simple and I try to attend maybe at least one gig during every tour in order to make it a ‘special’ event. I’m not setting out here to denigrate those who do, I just find it nigh on impossible financially and work-wise to take that step.
Having said that, I have to add that for me, having heard recordings of the other gigs on the UK leg of 2002, Manchester sounds like the right choice. ‘Maggies Farm’ was dizzying. Here was Dylan, in Manchester where all those years ago he’d been attacked for going electric playing his first electric single as an acoustic number! The ironies abounded. I know other people will say their particular favourite was one place or another, but I guess for all of us the ‘had to be there’ factor kicks in, rightly or wrongly.
A main reason for the choice would have to be the band. They are now at a peak of musical ability as a backing outfit for Dylan. I’d even go as far as to say that at times they are even stronger musically than The Band were, though obviously, time and circumstance are radically different. It’s the way they can cut across styles and genres with such ease that I find delightful. To be able to watch Jim Keltner, as I was able to do at Manchester, made it even more wonderful for me. Before this he was simply a name on albums that I’ve cherished. Two legends in one night was wonderful.
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I have to make a negative observation now, one which is purely personal. A two hour set experienced from a crushed, standing position is too long. Well, it is for me at least. I don’t profess to having an answer to this problem, I know some people like to get down and boogie, but I find myself yearning for the golden days of 1966 when you sat down and watched it like a ‘proper’ concert. Next time Dylan comes I’m going to go into training a month or so before.
Number Seven – Jerusalem by Steve Earle “Lately I feel like the loneliest man in America”, write Steve Earle in the liner notes to his latest album, before continuing with an impassioned plea for the voice of dissent as part of an American tradition to be upheld in this, its darkest hour. He cites Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers as an inspiration before urging us to remember those others like Emma Goldman, John Reed and Martin Luther King who also fought for the rights of the Constitution, but have now almost been buried by history for daring to question America’s ‘leaders’.
Earle is quite possibly the most direct link we have now in American popular music to the message song tradition as exemplified by writers such as Joe Hill and Woody Guthrie. As such, he is also part of the Country lineage that includes the ‘response’ song, and ‘commentary’ song. Not all the tunes on this album are specifically written to stir up the blood; Earle recognises that that would be too polemical and ultimately destructive to the message he’s trying to deliver. There is one song on this collection however, that has brought the wrath of the American right-wing down on his head and led to death threats and boycotts. Called ‘John Walker’s Blues’, the song is built on the story of nineteen year old John Walker Lindh, the so-called ‘American Taliban’, who was captured last year in Afghanistan and is now serving a 25 year sentence for ‘bearing arms against the United States’. What Earle does, and presumably what’s aroused the anger of the rednecks, is to write the song as if in Walker’s own words. The narrative takes us from his early teenage disillusionment with the American way of life, to the discovery of the word of the Prophet, and ultimately to his desire to die in the Jihad – ‘But Allah had some other plan, some secret not revealed – Now they’re dragging me back with my head in a sack, to the land of the Infidel – Al shadu la ilaha illa Allah – There is no God but God!’ It’s been a long time since a song sends shivers up and down my spine when I hear it. This one does every time.
Bear in mind if you buy this album, or hear any tunes from it, that there are people in America who actually tried to have Earle arrested for having created it. Much worse than that, there are actually people who have threatened to kill him over it. Now, it’s a long, long time since a song had the power to stir up that kind of reaction, and for that alone we must support Earle as much as we can.
Number Six – The Bootleg Series 5 – Bob Dylan 1975 Hang out the bunting – Old Bob’s back in town with a ding-dong dazzler from the archives. Whilst it’s great to have a properly re-mastered memento of the Rolling Thunder era complete with a pristine DVD to boot shouldn’t we be celebrating the brilliance that is the current touring band? Why doesn’t Dylan agree to the release of a live album from this, his most fruitful period in years?
Number Five – The Coral live at Manchester University In a vainglorious attempt to garner some street cred, I’ve been trying to listen to more contemporary music, and actually liked the CD of The Coral so much that we went to see them live in a venue I first played in 1967. I hadn’t set foot inside for a long time and was surprised at how much the interior had changed, until, that is, we went into what used to be called the Main
29 Debating Hall. It didn’t appear to be any different from when I went to see Cream or Captain Beefheart, or Bob Marley and The Wailers, basically 1200 people crushed into a long room watching a band playing at the other end. And what a band! Hailing from Liverpool and containing at least two brothers there isn’t one of them over the age of twenty-one. Their music is, I suppose there’s no other word for it, post-modern, that is to say, they’ve paid very close attention to their parent’s record collection, and as such are impossible to pin down to any one particular influence. The result is a wonderfully bouncing celebration of styles and forms, complete with close harmonies, trumpets, keyboards and chutzpah. They even had a light-show, that for me, brought back memories of the Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett played with them.
Number Four – A Tea Dance At The Savoy by Robert Meadley There used to be a seedy bookshop in one of the inner city wastelands that used to blight Manchester. What made it special was that they also had bootleg records for sale. In fact Clinton Heylin bought his first one there. What I never knew at the time was that the owners had a masterplan for world domination. Using the profits from the sale of soft-porn mags and Bob Dylan out-takes they were busy setting up a series of cultural incendiary devices with titles like ‘Crucified Toad’ and ‘New Worlds’. These maga zines specialised in publishing the best of a new wave of literature that was totally the opposite to that of the University of East Anglia/Granta Mafia. From these humble beginnings emerged Savoy Books, champions of writers like Michael Moorcock, M John Harrison, and Charles Partington. In the 1980s they earned the wrath of Chief Constable James Anderton and went to prison for their cheek in daring to publish a series called ‘Lord Horror’. This Rabelasian journey through the nightmare of the 20th century was the first book in England to be prosecuted for obscenity since the ‘Lady Chatterley’ trial in the early 1960s.
Bloodied but unbowed, Savoy carried on by perpetuating a series of outrages in the 1990s mainly evolving around the concept of reviving PJ Proby’s career. For Savoy he produced a CD Talking Book of ‘Lord Horror’, and a handful of other masterpieces, including his version of Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, and Irish rebel song ‘Kevin Barry’. The whole story of Savoy is celebrated in this brilliant collection of essays by mountaineering plumber, Robert Meadley. His take on the Savoy story is punctuated by visits to Schopenhauer, the Moors murderers, Paul Newman and much, much more. It has to be read to be believed and is one of the most stimulating books I’ve seen in a long time.
Number Three – Emusic We had Napster and Kazaa, and all the other dubious download sites on the internet, but it wasn’t until we came across Emusic that it all began to come together and make sense. Emusic is an internet music download site that’s actually owned by Universal Music. Presumably sensing which way the wind was blowing they decided to offer their entire catalogue over the internet. In exchange for the extremely modest charge of $9.99 per month, you have unlimited access to everything they own, and what they own is formidable. I’ve slightly scratched the surface of the Shanachie Yazoo one of the labels that they own the rights to. This is one of the finest Folk/Roots imprimaturs around. Their Rock archive is magnificent, as is their Jazz. You name it, they’ve got it or something approximating it.
30 We probably download three or four CDs worth of music a week, which to some people may not seem a lot, but it’s about all we can manage to absorb at the present time. I’ve just discovered that they’ve got a massive collection of Lenny Bruce, so that’ll have to be next. That’ll be when I’ve finished listening to the five CD set of Charlie Patton… and all known recordings of the Mississippi Sheiks… and Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers… and… and… The amount of money that it’s saved is enough to buy more Case Logics to fit the bloody things in!
Number Two – Dig Infinity – The Life & Art of Lord Buckley by Oliver Trager I said about all I can say as regards this wonderful book in Freewheelin’ last year. Suffice to say that it’s the perfect companion to the forthcoming BBC Radio 4 documentary on the life of Lord Buckley scheduled to be broadcast later in the year.
Number One – Arthur Lee Live at Manchester Academy After Dylan’s ‘disappearance’ in 1966, there were many cultural avatars to weigh up to fill the void. The most prominent one for me was Arthur Lee, who, with his band Love, were producing a series of recordings for Elektra Records that seemed at the time to be as revolutionary in style and content as anything could get. Love offered a wonderful melange of Latin tinged rhythms, swirling electric guitars and surrealistic lyrics, and the progression from their first album to the ecstatic high that was ‘Forever Changes’ is one of the most exciting in Rock history. We shouldn’t write the post 1967 Love off either, the recently re-mastered ‘Four Sail’ is another masterpiece.
But Arthur was a man beset by daemons, and after a rickety ride during the 1970s he was imprisoned under the ‘three strikes law’ for threatening a neighbour with a firearm. Arthur wasn’t a criminal, just a slightly damaged product of the acid days (daze?) of the 1960s, and to be sent to San Quentin was a barbaric and stupid application of the law.
Anyway, he emerged in the late 1990s and I heard with some disbelief that he was touring the UK. Somebody once said you can’t repeat the past. Then somebody else said, what do you mean you can’t – of course you can’. So we took a chance and went to see a flawed living legend. I went fully prepared to be let down. There is something sad about people you’ve formally regarded as heroes standing on a stage and churning out a greatest hits package. It can be a really daunting experience watching a formally great talent slide into mediocrity, but nothing could have prepared me for Arthur.
Almost the same age as Dylan, what was amazing was the power of his voice. Once described as ‘the underground Mel Torme’, he swooped and swung from the opening number, ‘My Little Red Book’, and then carried on blowing the minds of everyone at the gig. I’d waited nearly forty years to see this man and he did not let me down. Remarkable.
31
Addenda – Number Eleven I know this is supposed to be a Top Ten, but I can’t resist including what, for me at least, was a very moving experience – The Manchester earthquakes. Yes, earthquakes plural. Not just one, but dozens of them. What the seismologists call a ‘cluster’ apparently.
The first one happened on a Monday morning as we were having a cup of tea in bed. At first we thought a lorry had crashed into the front of the house. When we put on our local BBC radio station reports started coming in that it had actually been an earthquake. Another tremor at mid- day had us all checking our insurance policies. That night an ‘expert’ came on the TV and said it was nothing to worry about, we’d had a tremor and the aftershock. At work the next day the whole room shook as another tremor hit. I had the strangest feeling of utter helplessness. You just stand there and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. The whole experience is remarkably atavistic and primal. Now, to be honest, these quakes were small fry in comparison to what other parts of the world get, but I’m a Mancunian and these things don’t happen here. Nor do we get tidal waves, hurricanes, or volcanic eruptions, but what chance they might happen now? The quakes were occurring so often in fact that we were all becoming a bit blasé about them. Some wag even renamed the city ‘Man Fransico’. Later in the week the ‘expert’ appeared on telly again and admitted that he was totally baffled. Seismologists from around the country relocated to Manchester and set up their equipment. By the end of October I believe there had been over fifty quakes. An old Mancunian mate who now lives in California emailed and told me he was quite jealous as they hadn’t had a decent quake for over a year. Well, as far as I’m concerned – He can keep them!
Finally – A Happy New Year to all Freewheelers – May the fruit be on the vine!
32
Richard Lewis 10 for 2002
Dylan
It’s a toss up between Manchester in May and Live 75 arriving in November. Both were marvellous and both benefit from repeated listening. In May it was Dylan as he is now, still a joy to see and great to hear, whereas on CD it is just fantastic to hear and makes you long for a full length DVD of any RTR show to see him.
John Green Day 2
A great day as I wrote in a previous Freewheelin’. Looking back I think that what I enjoyed most was meeting a couple of the newer Freewheelers, Paula and Chris (CP), and having a bit of a chat. Putting a face and a person to an article brings them more to life.
Kitchen
It is not until you have to live without one for two months that you appreciate how useful a kitchen is! Now it is a joy to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon cooking up large batches of Bolognese sauce to the sound of a favourite CD (currently Tweeter and the Monkey man on repeat!).
France
Two trips this year. An extended camping holiday at the Pont du Gard, near Remoulin (or as my boys used to say when we first went there – “Rainbow Land”) was the first. The second was when I accompanied Jenny to a conference in Toulouse during October half term. Whilst she delivered erudite papers and chaired stormy sessions I strolled around Toulouse in the sunshine sampling the best French cuisine and checking the quality of the local wine.
Fun at Work
Luckily it is not all planning and SATs. This year we’ve had several discos at which I am the only DJ who is forbidden to play any of his own records! In case you want to get down with any 8 to 11 year olds you might like to know that last year’s favourites were DJ Otis’ Hey Baby, Robbie Williams’ Rock DJ and of course The Ketchup Song! We also, as a reward for our Year 6 Booster group, treated them to the Simpsons in 3D at our IMAX cinema and went Ten Pin bowling. In addition we put on a wonderful production of Joseph.
33 CDs
I enjoyed new CDs from Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello, Dan Bern, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, Mary Gauthier, Jackson Browne and the best of all Fashionably Late by Linda Thompson. Wonderful reissues from Gene Clark (aka White Light), Fairport (Heyday and Liege and Lief), and splendid tributes to Townes van Zandt (Poet) and Derroll Adams (Banjo man). Box Sets from Ian and Sylvia (Complete Vanguard Sessions), Fairport (UnConventionAl), The Band (The Last Waltz) and Shirley Collins (Within Sound). I would recommend the Shirley Collins to everyone and say do try to read the booklet, which is an absolute joy.
Books / Magazines
This year I’ve enjoyed a couple more offerings from Kinky Friedman (you can always be sure of the odd Dylan reference), a couple from Christopher Brookmyre who just gets better and better. A new find, courtesy of my friend Bill, has been Ace Atkins with his first detective novel Crossroad Blues about the search for the recordings from a forgotten Robert Johnson session! His new one, Leavin’ Trunk Blues is waiting to be read. Also worth a glance is Bill Wyman’s Rolling With The Stones a mammoth work of love with an emphasis on the early years, Lee Underwood’s Blue Melody – Tim Buckley Remembered and Shirley Hughes’, the children’s author and illustrator, autobiography – A Life Drawing. Apart from Freewheelin, with recent wonderful articles from lots of us, my favourite monthly read has been Uncut which keeps getting better as it treats music, films and books seriously.
DVDs
Apart from Wonder Boys, which I have written a lot about, the other DVDs which bear repeated viewings are all music ones. The John Prine sessions and the greatest hits by The Jam and Pulp.
Cinema
In Toulouse I enjoyed Clint Eastwood in Creance de Sang, which I now find out, as it was released here last week, is Blood Work. Not a bad thriller. Otherwise apart from compulsory viewings of Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings it was two music offerings that made the greatest impression. Jerry Garcia in Grateful Dawg and a film about Nick Drake: A Skin Too Few
Live
As well as Dylan I’ve seen Fairport, Roger McGuinn, Elvis Costello, Ralph McTell, Billy Bragg and Christine Collister. The highlight for me was seeing Alabama 3 at the Cockpit in Leeds, which was easily the loudest gig I’ve been to for 20 years! If you’ve not heard them check out their three albums. You may know the theme tune they do for The Sopranos – Woke Up This Morning. No space left to fit in two more Dylan related highlights so I’ll put them here any way. There was the marvellous Westinghouse tape Folk Songs and More Folk Songs – a great big thank you to those generous people who found it and then shared it. And there was, and still is, Expecting Rain which every week leads me to new treasures. Another big thank you. 34 More Bob Dylan Top Ten Pill Box Hats.
By Neil Watson
Time again for our traditional top Bob of the year awards so soon? How soon is now? I wouldn’t be surprised if our old friend Jeff didn’t make a guest appearance for this one!
But to be serious for a moment, one of the high points of 2002 has to be the continuation of the “Freewheelin’”organisation and the magazine as we know it. Through all the adversity and ‘Judas’ earlier in the year it continues and goes from strength to strength.
“Freewheelin’” could have reverted back to just being a 13 issue ‘privately’ circulated magazine but instead moved on to become the first Internet Dylan magazine.
It’s been said before that there are plenty of new writers (on Dylan’s work) out there. This has proven to be the case with “Freewheelin’” over the past 12 months or so. There have been some great new writers join our group making many excellent contributions. People like Paula Radice, Robert Forryan and CP Lee. And more recently articles by Russell Blatcher, in particular the “Caribbean Wind” piece in issue 203 July, 2002.
Another big highlight of this year must be The Second Annual John Green Day back on the 31st August. A good date to hold this event, two great memories in one.
First I have to say how much I regret that I couldn’t make it to this second event having enjoyed the first year so much. This was the place to be without a doubt. A place full of like-minded people with all things Bob, and to pay tribute to John. I did get to hear Julie Felix perform a number of the Dylan covers she recorded for the “Starry Eyed And Laughing” album later in the year when she played a concert at the Assembly Rooms in our hometown of Tamworth. I talked to Julie briefly after the show about her day at the John Green Memorial and she said how much she’d enjoyed it all.
35 Talked also about the 1969 “Isle Of Wight” concert and couldn’t leave without a mention of Leonard Cohen. How come you didn’t sing any of his songs?!! I’ll leave this important day on the calendar with this quote from Chris Coopers article written about the event.
After Dylan’s performance of “Restless Farewell” (from the Sinatra 80th birthday tribute) on video was shown linked to pictures of John Green you could not have helped to be moved.
“I went over to John’s mum Edna at the end of it, seeing the tears rolling down her cheeks. She smiled at me and holding my hand she said”,
“It’s ok, I’m not sad. I’m just so proud to think that you all thought so much of my John. I am so pleased you all still remember him”.
And that must be what it’s all about. That must be what it’s all about.
I managed to get to only one of the UK shows again this year. The NEC in Birmingham. A bit special this one too. The show turned out to be probably the set list of the tour. It was my first chance to hear some of the songs from “Love And Theft” live for the first time. Most of these worked well enough though “Cry Awhile” and “Honest With Me” were the highlights for me. The set list included gems like “It’s Alright Ma”, “The 4th Time Around”, “The Wicked Messenger” and “Tomorrow Is A Long Time”. Great show!!
They even had a programme this time around. The first one in loads of never ending tours!
It was also “Great to be back in Newport” for Bob this year when he returned to the ‘scene of the crime’ at the Newport Folk Festival on the 3rd August, 2002. Bob was wearing a disguise, but still had nothing to hide. Looked like a Woody Allen ‘Bananas’ out-take to me! Dylan is all humour.
Next up, the release of the remastered “The Last Waltz” 4CD box set. A magical collection of great artists performing great songs. Many unreleased goodies from the original vinyl release make this an essential buy. I initially played the couple of Clapton songs quite a lot. Brilliant performances. “Further On Up The Road” is a real upfront song with a great guitar riff. The unreleased “All Our Past Times” co- written with Rick Danko who also shares the vocals is a real joy. Also welcome were the 2 unreleased songs from Joni Mitchell. I thought she gave an outstanding performance at “The Last Waltz”. Joni’s vocals were beautiful. She was well in her prime back then – Just listen to “Coyote” and the backing vocal on “Helpless” with Neil Young. 36
There was of course one extra Dylan track included from his original set. A nice version of “Hazel”. Been a long wait for this one.
As Robbie Robertson commented in his notes in the booklet, “Hazel” was an odd choice for Dylan. The other songs in the set fitted in with Dylan and The Band’s past and future(!) repertoire so why?
At the back of the booklet there are two photographs side by side of the late Rick Danko and Richard Manuel.
“Dedicated to the art and memory of Rick Danko and Richard Manuel”
“A stage is a safe place for me,” Rick Danko once said. “I’d be lost without it.” The stage is now a lesser place without Rick Danko and Richard Manuel. When you play the music through on this box set you realise the loss.
A short and sweet highlight of the year was Dylan’s performance of “Cry Awhile” at the 44th Grammy Awards back in February. Good choice of song and Bob looked in pretty good shape. He didn’t pick up an award this time, but then we didn’t really want him waving anything else around on stage did we?
More recently we saw the release of “The Bootleg Series Volume 5 – Live 1975.” Another nice package and still trying to keep up with the “Genuine Bootleg Series”! The write-up, the booklet and the photographs are excellent. The music is all too familier to the hardcore fans of course but this is the quality we are always looking for.
Some unique versions of many classic Dylan songs of the 22 on this collection. Particularly “Hard Rain,” “Romance In Durango” and “It Takes A Lot To Laugh.” There are also the sublime versions of both “Isis” and “Tangled Up In Blue” which are on the collectors DVD.
A bit of good news printed in the back of the booklet: Sony will soon be releasing more music from the vaults in the Bootleg Series. Look out for the complete 1964 Philharmonic Hall Concert in 2003. I will, I will. A new “Bootleg Series” once a year now? Sounds good to me.
Prior to the release of “The Bootleg Series Vol.5” there was a “Rolling Thunder Revue” special in the November issue of the “Uncut” magazine.
The article ‘Eye Of The Hurricane’ was by the man who knows all about the ‘RTR’ Larry Sloman. Sloman’s great book “On The Road” was of course re-published 37 earlier in the year. As usual as it is the ‘RTR’ there are loads of great photo’s from the lens of Ken Regan.
A shot of Bob making a phone call whilst trying to walk a dog! The shot of Dylan wearing his ‘The Only Innocent Hurricane’ T-shirt. And a great photo of Bob backstage with Springsteen and John Prine. Good stuff.
Finally a mention of ‘World Tour 1966-The Home Movies.’ This was the release of the Mickey Jones private 8mm film of the ’66 world tour on DVD recently. One of those things you must see but know you are going to be disappointed. Obviously it’s going to be a real downer with the footage being silent! It does move though, and it is 1966. I guess it is of historic importance and something you simply must have.
It just leaves you wanting more – Like the official release of “Eat The Document” on DVD, and 3 days of out-takes!!! Just a thought…
To Chris Hockenhull. Chris, I never thought I’d see the day. We could have swapped places! Welcome home, hope you are better at this than I ever was.
To Mark. Many thanks as ever for the annual Bob-card and more so for all the hard work that must have gone into that collaboration with Dickens for the F’in Christmas Carol.
Hope there is at least some joy for us all in 2003. Have a good one.
38
10 for 2002.
By Robert Forryan
Before getting to my Top Ten, I feel I have to comment on the Chris & Mark issues regarding interaction and reaction to each other’s writing. I think there are a couple of relevant facts to be considered. One is that Chris wouldn’t have expected, presumably, us all to respond to his quandary. Which means, of course, that some of us may either feel we have nothing individually to offer, or that someone else will probably do it better anyway – and leave it up to that unknown ‘someone’. In this instance I didn’t feel I had much to say for the reasons I’ve stated elsewhere, namely, that I’m not into the collecting/recording merry-go-round myself. Chris may feel that I would, therefore, have something useful to say to him, but I don’t think I have ever been where Chris is, so to speak. Equally, it would be difficult for someone who hasn’t ‘been there’ to have any credibility, and there is always the danger of sounding-off about things you don’t understand and of seeming patronising or worse.
There is something else, however, which I don’t think the older Freewheelers (in terms of membership, that is) see as a problem. Several of us ‘newer’ Freewheelers were invited, I imagine, because we were known quantities in that we had written for other Dylan magazines. In itself that is fine, but in practice what it means is that we have become used to thinking of a topic and writing about it. We didn’t have a background of sort of writing letters to one another. So, in my case, when I have responded to someone else’s writing (like CP Lee’s & Patrick Webster’s recently, and before that to Mark’s ‘Blair Witch Project’) it has been mainly about a subject rather than a kind of personal interaction which is what Chris’s situation seemed to require. As I have said to JRS many times: I don’t really know any of you and have only met some of you briefly. JRS is the only one I really have any ongoing friendship with. Maybe that’s my fault but there it is. It’s not helped by the fact that I don’t go to many Dylan events or concerts so I don’t meet people.
Anyway, I don’t know where that takes anybody so I think I’ll move on to my Top Ten, in reverse order:
39 10. The Pedro Almodovar movie ‘Talk To Her’. I have to admit that this story of two men drawn together by their connection to two women in a coma is brilliantly conceived and filmed and I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen for a second. I haven’t seen a better film this twelvemonth. But it is morally flawed (for reasons too long to go into here) and that did leave a nasty taste in the mouth.
9. The Eden Project which we visited for the first time this year. I found the Tropical Zone just amazing. Not just the trees and flowers but the sheer joy my body felt in the heat and humidity. It was so invigorating and I loved feeling the dampness on my face which wasn’t sweat but simple moisture. And unlike the real tropics you don’t get bitten to death by insects.
8. The Gaslight Tapes CD by Bob Dylan. Not new, I know, and I have had this on tape for years, but it was only in 2002 that I picked up the CD. I guess you all had this for ages but for me the superior sound was stunning. It made me re-appraise the whole thing – and the voice, oh, the voice… I also picked up the Minneapolis Hotel tape on CD which was another revelation.
7. Bernhard Schlink’s novel, ‘The Reader’. A wonderfully written holocaust-related lo ve story. It made me think about what it was to be young and German after the war, knowing that your parents and all their friends and peers had been nazi sympathisers or collaborators – and the complexity of maintaining family relationships in the knowledge of that. A compelling study of the insidious nature of national guilt. And a brilliant twist in the plot.
6. Tom Waits: ‘Alice’/’Blood Money’. Two albums released simultaneously and, in many ways, my musical highlights of the year (the only CD higher is really 27 years old). Full of the usual Waitsian mix of sardonic humour, off-the-wall sounds, pathos and noirish atmosphere. Lovely stuff.
5. ‘Live 1975’ by Bob Dylan. A wonderful, wonderful album. I don’t understand why some of you seem to be grumbling about this? 1975 is a year where I do have lots of the shows on CD and tape but there is nothing to compare with this CD. Whoever made the selection chose absolute gems and the sound clarity is a joy. It’s just gorgeous and I don’t know how anyone can complain about the odd missing song (why should it have to represent the order of the shows – how does historical accuracy enhance quality?). It’s damn near perfect. The fact that it’s not my number one simply reflects the fact that Dylan is no longer the most important interest in my life. If he ever was. Sorry.
4. ‘Like A Complete Unknown’ by John Hinchey. My Dylan book of the year. A book which takes a serious look at the poetry in Dylan’s work from 1961 to 1969. This could have been a huge yawn but it isn’t. Each chapter gives me a new ‘take’ on some aspect of Dylan’s output. I’ve never been a supporter of the Dylan for the Nobel Prize lobby, but this is the book that just might change my mind.
40 3. ‘The Lone Swallows’ by Henry Williamson. This was the year I discovered that I could trace out-of-print books via the internet. This was one of those books – a book I read and re-read endlessly from the school library in my adolescence. In those days I was a day-dreaming romantic who fantasised about the solitary life in the English countryside. It’s a remorselessly sentimental book and I would hate it if I first read it now, but then it was a treasure and I’m glad to now have it for sentimental reasons. I was meant to have this book. The only copy I could trace in all of England was on sale in Lowestoft – the town where I work. Serendipity or what?
2. Roy Harper live at Exeter University. I’ve written about this previously. Life-enhancing and the only concert I saw this year.
1. ‘Autumn Journal’ by Louis MacNeice, read by Samuel West on Radio 4. MacNeice is my favourite poet and this is one of his finest poems. So when I found it was to be on radio it had to be taped and re-taped for friends. West makes an excellent reader, and very different from MacNeice himself who had the clipped upper-class diction of his time. For anyone who doesn’t know this poem it was written in 1938/39 and is a kind of elegy for the pre-war world that MacNeice sensed was doomed. The poem has all sorts of resonances as we sit today on the verge of another war. It skips from love affairs in London to childhood in Ireland to Birmingham in the depression to Spain at the outbreak of civil war. Mostly it is an atmospheric evocation of a time that was vanishing and is now long gone:
I loved my love with a platform ticket, A jazz song, A handbag, a pair of stockings of Paris Sand – I loved her long. I loved her between the lines and against the clock, Not until death But till life did us part I loved her with paper money And with whisky on the breath. I loved her with peacock’s eyes and the wares of Carthage, With glass and gloves and gold and a powder puff With blasphemy, camaraderie, and bravado And lots of other stuff. I loved my love with the wings of angels Dipped in henna, unearthly red, With my office hours, with flowers and sirens, With my budget, my latchkey, and my daily bread.
41
THE MISSIONARY TIMES
The Last Waltz of 2002 (A step back in time)
1-2-3 2-2-3 3-2-3 ……. 1-2-3 2-2-3 3-2-3
Forward -side- together; forward- side- together; back-side together.
Forward -side- together; forward- side- together; back-side together.
That’s how things seem to have been for me in 2002: two steps forward and one step backward. I seemed to have lived this year in waltz time. Take Christmas for instance. We had a fun Christmas here at number two Oaklands that was topped off with a trip down to London on the day after Boxing Day to catch the last exhibition of the year at the Tate Modern (see my cover) followed by a visit to the outside public skating rink at Somerset House in the Strand and a meal at the Café du Parie in Covent Garden. A wonderful, although very wet, day. Memories are made of such stuff. Then I was awoken early the following morning with the news that my dear 87 year old mum had been admitted to A&E at Barnet General Hospital suffering from a suspected stroke. An immediate return to London, 8 hours in a very busy casualty department witnessing all manner of blood and guts before mum was settled peacefully into a ward named after a tree. After a couple of days she was transferred to another ward named after a different tree and that is where she still is as I compose my 208th article for Freewheelin’. The stroke has been confirmed, mum has lost her speech but has retained her sense of humour as her copious hand written notes about life on Spruce ward have confirmed. She is a fantastic, indestructible lady with an iron will. I can’t imagine life without her. She will be OK but progress will be slow. A matter of two steps forward and one step backward. Another life played out in waltz time.
It is not only the slow progress of those individual steps that seem to have hampered me this year, the entire 12 months has led me a merry dance. On occasions time has been as sunny as Doris Day and I could have been in some grand Viennese ballroom, effortlessly gliding around the floor in perfect waltz time to the beat of an orchestra conducted by none other than Johann Strauss the younger himself. At other times, I was stranded like a frozen wallflower, wonderin’ (as the song goes) what I’m doin’ here. Perhaps I should have learned some other dances. If I could have done the foxtrot, lope and pace, or perhaps the Georgia crawl or even the double shuffle and the darktown strut: now they would have come in handy when my legs were about to stiffen.
42 But I shouldn’t really complain, after all there has been a forward movement. Gentle and rhythmic with the sound of music in my ears. Who could ask for anything more? Who could ask for anything more? So, having learned to accept life in waltz time, let me take to the floor once again and recall ten of the best steps of the year. Doesn’t matter if you are not reading this in a honky tonk saloon or even underneath a Panamanian moon, I’m gonna tell you anyway – and you can watch my waltz for free! These are in no order of preference: they come as they spring to mind:
1. Freewheelin’
The epitome of waltz time this year. One step backward and two steps forward. The beginning of the year was horrendous for me personally as I witnessed the break up of all we had achieved in putting our public magazine together. Emotions get tempered in the general drift of time but reviewing the situation now cause a torrent of chemicals to flood and disturb a calmer mindset. But time moves us on and the only way to recover from the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune is to take the lead from Sir Cliff and put on your dancin’ shoes to dance away the blues. Which we did and what was a relatively small step forward turned out to be giant leap for Freewheelin’ when freewheelin-on-line was launched on Dylan’s 61st birthday, 24th May 2002. If you visit the bookshop you will see that a new issue of Freewheelin’ has been placed on the shelf on the 24th of each month thereafter, including (thanks to Chris) 24th December. The site has been tremendously successful, we get an average of 1300 hits a month and there are some exciting times ahead on the ‘net. Just watch this space.
Freewheelin’ isn’t however about its public face. What really makes this clock tick is the continued commitment of you Freewheelers to the project of a writing circle, a free exchange of anything we want to say, not only touching upon the most important figure in popular culture who just happens to be sharing our time and space, but also upon ourselves and the way that we relate to Dylan’s art. It is a unique project involving an eclectic bunch of individuals who may all dance in a different way but, by the same token, all remain on the same dance floor. I am proud and privileged to be up there with you. We have made just a few steps backward but with the current personnel of Freewheelin', and with Chris Hockenhull back where he belongs, we have definitely moved forward this year. Next year we could even make the final of Come Dancing!
2. Karl Erik Anderson at Expecting Rain.
No longer do we have to scour the music papers for mention of what is happening in Bobworld. It is ready and waiting for us each morning. All we have to do is switch on and tune in. My visit to Expecting Rain is a daily function for me and I don’t think that I could do without it now. In this I am not alone: since Karl Erik started monitoring Expecting Rain in July 2001 he has had nearly 4 million visitors to his site. It is clearly the most important point of reference for anyone interested in the art of Bob Dylan and what is more, Karl Erik is such a nice guy! We all owe him a great debt of thanks.
3. John Green Day number 2
When we all seemed to be out of step, spinning around in different directions, suddenly it all came together and the day went as smooth as a rhapsody. Everyone who attended the day went home completely happy and John’s family have pleaded with us to do it again. At present we are seriously into waltz time for JGDay3 as the Moat House have tried to take the legs from under us.
43 Only brutal persuasion by Keith Agar has kept us on the dance floor but I am sure it is going to happen again next year. So start shining those tap shoes now.
4&5 Brighton and Bournemouth 2002
It was a matter of springtime for Dylan and harmony. Although he completely buggered up our arrangements for JGDay2, it was great to see old Bob back on these shores. There is no use complaining that he is looking old, that his voice is gone, that he didn’t play your favourite song: this is the current Bob – doing what he likes to do in the way that he likes to do it. He owes us nothing for we have already taken from him more than that to which we are rightfully entitled. His art may be divine but the guy is only human for Gods sake!
6. Waitin’ For You
As Paula has already pointed out in her articles for Freewheelin’ and The Bridge, Dylan has been doing some waltzing of his own and I love Paulas expression of ‘ the crazy drunken waltzing of the tune’ when referring to this song. Indeed there is a passage from Paula’s article which deserves to be repeated here because it wonderfully ties you to the song: you can simultaneously feel the movement of both compositions and it is a passage that lifts the spirit.
‘The more I listen to it, and look at the printed words, the more there is in it. The words are a perfect match to the tune. As the tune whirls and circles like the hurdy-gurdy of a fairground ride, the lyrics stress the “aroundness” of the singers relationship to his “gal” (and what a very telling little word that is, placing the situation in time and place “exactly” with just three letters). Freedom rings, again using a circling image. His senses, and those of others around him, are heightened – although not, as in the case of the fiddler, overused to the point of exhaustion. There is seeing and saying, tasting and touching:
I’m here to see what she has to say… The fiddler’s arm has gone dead… Talk is beginning to spread… I’ll see you tomorrow… …I held you tight …we said goodnight The taste of tears is bittersweet…
Is it the tune, or the drink, or the heat, or the strength of his feelings, that’s overloading his senses, and making him dizzy?’
An intriguing, evocative question. Thanks for that Paula, nobody said it better about this song.
7. The Bootleg Series Volume 5. Bob Dylan Live 1975.
The other official product of the year. That very sexy photo of Bob with those smouldering eyes and those wispy strands of curly dark hair has been vandalised on my package by a bright yellow sticker declaring the contents to contain ‘Incendiary live versions of 22 classic Bob Dylan songs’ and a ‘ 56 page booklet with stunning rare photographs and in-depth notes’ . I have to say that, for once, I accept the hype. It is a brilliant package of eternal delight. For some reason I have become absolutely stuck on the song which is neither a Bob Dylan classic nor a Bob Dylan original. The 44 song is ‘The Water Is Wide’ and probably the reason for my particular groove on this song is because it was one of a quartet that was included on a Rolling Thunder sampler way back when. I seem to recall playing those four tracks so frequently that the vinyl ultimately melted!
8. Visions of Johanna
In the roaring traffic’s boom. In the silence of my lonely room, I think of this song. Night and day. But I will finish soon. I just have to finish soon!
9. 6 Nights at Cambridge
The Golden Hind on Milton Road is the place to be on the last Friday of every odd month. Our Cambridge meetings have been really well attended this year and the Management of the Golden Hind have at last got their act together and provided us with a safe haven for our Dylan meetings. I say this because, at a meeting early in the year a fight broke out in the bar downstairs and the place was almost wrecked. Us hardy Dylan folk however carried on regardless and now we have bouncers on the door and the toilets can be used again! It is great to see such a wonderful mix of Dylan people at these gatherings, from hardened completists to the occasional Bob watcher. We are family.
10. Bob Dylan
Yes it’s him. Old Bob. Just a song and dance man who waltzes through my life on such a regular basis. He doesn’t know me and, in all honesty, I haven’t got a clue about him. I just know there’s something in the way he moves that attracts me like no other artist. Thank you Bob for being around in 2002. If this year has been busy then it looks like 2003 will be mega with shows, films, books, meetings and the continuing journal of us Freewheelin’ folk to keep me spinning around and around. At the end of it all I hope that I can say that I could have danced all night, I could have danced all night and still have asked for more!
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AND FINALLY some best non-Bob events:
Best Music: I seem to have spent the entire year listening to Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra but of the many other CD’s I have bought in 2002, the one that haunts me the most is ‘Seachange’ the accoustic album from the wonderful Beck. Besides that, The Cheeky Song (touch my bum) by The Cheeky Girls was a life changing experience!
Best Film: Fantastic news that Tartan have released about 20 Bergman films on DVD. I have started collecting the titles all over again. Saw most of the big pics during the year but a film that totally absorbed me, even after a second viewing was the Mexican film ‘Amores Perros’.
Best Exhibiton: I got my money’s worth from my Tate membership subscription this year with Warhol, Picasso and Matisse on display. The one that knocked me sideways however was the Barnet Newman collection in December. Diving into those massive expanses of colour was just like dancing in the air.
Best Book. Alas, I don’t seem to have much time for fiction, or even non-fiction these days. ‘Mona Lisa’ by Donald Sassoon was a page turner for all sorts of reasons.
Best Food . Stiffado at Napoleons – A French restaurant run by Swedes on the Greek island of Skiathos in September was interesting. That light Sunday lunch in Suffolk at Elaine and Roberts in October was a delight!
Best Website Excluding freewheelin-on-line, it has to be Expecting Rain of course but play.com is great if you are looking for a good range of music and film on the cheap.
Best Foottie. Forget the World Cup, we won’t win anything with Swedes. Barnet –v- Nuneaton Borough in the Conference was the game. Viva grass roots football.
Best Person. My mum. Our last waltz will last forever. .
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